Background
Chambrin was born in Paris on September 13, 1947.
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Pierre Chambrin
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He received his culinary education at the Ecole des Metiers de l"alimentation, which he attended from 1961 to 1963.
Career
He moved to the United States in 1969 and opened a restaurant in Massachusetts. In 1979 Chambrin took over the Washington, District of Columbia restaurant Maison Blanche, located near the
Chambrin was appointed under the presidency of George H. West. Bush to succeed Hans Raffert. Under the Clinton administration, a group of prominent American chefs, led by Alice Waters, sent a letter to the urging an appointment of a chef who would "promote American cooking," although Chambrin stated that he was already using American ingredients and that his first concern was food quality.
In March 1994, however, Chambrin resigned after a push from the administration to impose newer health standards, specifically using food with less fat, a standard that Chambrin was unwilling to conform to
lieutenant was widely reported that he was asked to resign, although he says that this is not the case and it was his own decision. Chambrin"s staff of three chefs left the with him.
He was succeeded by Walter Scheib. After leaving the, Chambrin became the executive chef at the Saint Louis Club in Saint Louis, Missouri.
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Ruth Reichl defended the chef in an article in the Los Angeles Times, calling him "enthusiastic about just about everything organic, and so excited by the idea of seasonality," and pointing out that it was not the norm for new administrations to appoint a new chef.
